What is there to do in Charlotte this weekend? Here’s our experts’ picks on everything from entertainment – movies to music to theater – to food and wine, beer and restaurants. And shopping, of course...

Friday

▪ Learn more about the city’s outdoor sculptures at 10:30 a.m. (there’ll be coffee) at the Mint on Randolph with Arts and Science Council’s VP of public art, Carla Hanzal. An expert in contemporary art and sculpture, Hanzal was formerly curator of contemporary art at the Mint Museum and sits on the board of the International Sculpture Center. – KS

▪ Watch the Improper Pig at the Improper Pig: The Cotswold Mall restaurant will hold a viewing party at 8:15 p.m. for their appearance on Guy Fieri’s show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” on the Food Network. – KP

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▪ Comedian Steve Rannazzisi is known for having seriously bad judgment: He (in)famously once fabricated a story about surviving the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Yet he’s also known for being a seriously funny guy: He’ll star later this year in superhero spoof “Avengers of Justice: Farce Wars” – or, you can see him do stand-up at The Comedy Zone in Charlotte at 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. (also 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday). – TJ

▪ The Who’s “Tommy” has been a concept album, a film score, another concept album with a symphony orchestra and a Broadway show. Now The Hillbenders give it a high lonesome sound in “Tommy: A Bluegrass Opry” at 8 p.m. in Batte Center at Wingate University. They play the whole album (with audience participation), then do a traditional bluegrass set. – LT

Saturday

▪ The Broken Spoke, the cocktail club next to Great Wagon Road Distillery, celebrates its first anniversary with a Prohibition party 6 p.m.-midnight. Admission is $5 for small bites and drinks. Details: Broken Spoke on Facebook. – KP

▪ Painting as spectator sport? Five artists and one live, pro model set out to prove that concept at the third annual Sun Drop Pound CakePortrait Paint-Off, 3-6 p.m. at ClearWater Artist Studios in Concord. The audience watches as five invited portraitists (along with a second row of painters who signed up) live-paint. An emcee, pound cakes, soda (guess which kind) and more will be on hand as well. – HS

▪ As host of his wildly popular weekly podcast “WTF,” Marc Maron has made headlines for his provocative interviews with famous folks ranging from Robin Williams to Barack Obama. As a touring stand-up comic, he stops at Knight Theater for an 8 p.m. show. – TJ

▪ The Unknown Brewing Co. (1327 S. Mint St.) will release Dirty Commie Heathen, its 12.4 percent ABV barrel-aged imperial stout aged on cherries, at the brewery this Saturday morning. Bottles of the beer will be available for sale at $13.99 a piece, with a limit of two bottles per person. The beer will also be available on draft, and the Kabobsters food truck will be parked outside the brewery. Dirty Commie Heathen will be released on draft and in bottles around town starting Feb. 28, but distribution will be limited. – DH

▪ The concert’s title is “Moving Pictures at an Exhibition,” and sure enough – the Charlotte Civic Orchestra will play Maurice Ravel’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” plus movie music from “Batman” to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” An arrangement of ’50s and ’60s TV themes by Dean Kluesner opens the concert at 4 p.m. at Matthews United Methodist Church. – LT

▪ If you have been wanting to see Leo Twiggs’ exhibit “Requiem for Mother Emanuel,” now’s the time: It leaves the Mint Museum on Randolph Road today, and the batik artist will be there in person from about 2 to 4 p.m. to see it off. – LT

Tuesday

▪ Shovels & Rope – aka the Charleston duo of Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent, which has turned heads opening for the Avetts and at taste-making festivals – dug deep while writing the new album, “Little Seeds.” Written around the time they were having their first child while caring for Trent’s Alzheimer’s-stricken father, it’s their most personal record thus far. They’re at Knight Theater at 7:30 p.m. – CD

▪ Tommy Tomlinson talks about what it’s like to be an overweight man at the Charlotte Writers Club. 7 p.m., Providece United Methodist Church. Free. – DP

▪ The Piano Guys, who gained fame on YouTube for covers of classic and contemporary hits, made headlines last month when they performed a mash-up of Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” and “Amazing Grace” at the Freedom Ball for President Trump’s inauguration. Expect lots of covers but no politics at its 7:30 p.m. concert at Ovens Auditorium. – TJ

Thursday

▪ 5Church Charlotte hosts its first Somm Series wine event with beverage director Patricia Smith leading 20 guests through a tasting of four bubbly beverages and hors d’oeuvres. Tickets are $38 (including tip and tax). Call 704-919-1322 for details. – KP

▪ Frye Gaillard, writer-in-residence at the University of South Alabama and author of 17 works of nonfiction, including “The Dream Long Deferred: The Landmark Struggle for Desegregation in Charlotte, N.C.” is keynote speaker for the 2017 Hon. James B. McMillan Fellowship Fundraiser dinner at 6:30 p.m. at Byron’s in SouthEnd. Register now: 704-375-8624. – DP

▪ In recent years, Davidson Community Players has filled gaps in the local repertoire of classics, along with its musicals and farces. DCP will do Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and you’ll be right on top of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski at Armour Street Theatre. (Through March 12.) – LT

▪ Poet and criminal justice reform advocate Reginald Dwayne Betts says one book completely changed his life: “The Black Poets,” which someone slid under his door while he was serving a nine-year prison sentence for carjacking. He has since written two collections: “Masters of the Reagan Era,” a PEN New England Award winner for poetry, and “Shahid Reads His Own Palm.” His memoir, “A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison,” tells the story of his confinement in some of Virginia’s worst prisons. 7-8 p.m., Belk Centrum, Lenoir-Rhyne University, Hickory. Free. – DP